Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Volga Boatmen by Ilya Repin


















Volga! Volga! In the spring your torrents
Cannot flood the fields as much
As our people's awful pain
Floods our land-

-Nikolay Nekrasov, "Thoughts at a Vestibule", 1858.

What I Am Reading


Monday, February 20, 2012

The Lion of the West Transvaal

Rum, Cigars & Hemingway

I have just returned from a weekend trip down to a relative's second home in the Florida Keys, Key Largo to be exact. It was quite relaxing and a much needed break from University and the accounting office I work at. I was able to enjoy rare intellectual discussion with some cousins I had not seen in a while over the tangible delicacies of Havana Club rum and Romeo y Julieta Cuban cigars. When I was able to get away from the discussion and enjoy the refreshing breeze paired with some alone time on the back porch by the water, I managed to read Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. Not only was the book more than appropriate for the setting, but also the fact that reading a book written by Hemingway in his beloved kingdom (or perhaps his "Conch Republic"?) made the experience that much more treasurable.